NOTES for Mat 17:1-9
Following the tradition established for the Twelve Great Feasts, we present liturgical reflections by the hymnographer Fathers devoted to the feast and its Gospel reading (the first two stichera are by St Cosmas of Maiuma, who died around 731; the authors of the third sticheron and of the kontakion are not known with certainty):
Before Your Cross, O Lord, the mountain became like heaven and the cloud stretched out like a canopy when You were transfigured and the Father bore witness to You. Peter was there with James and John, who were also to be with You at the time of Your betrayal, so that, having seen Your wonders, they would not be afraid of Your sufferings. In Your great mercy, grant that we may venerate them in peace.
Before Your Cross, O Lord, You took the disciples up a high mountain and were transfigured before them, illumining them with the radiance of power, so as to reveal the light of the Resurrection both through Your love for mankind and through Your authority. O merciful God and Lover of mankind, grant that we too may receive it in peace.
Christ, the Light who shone before the sun, dwelt bodily upon earth and, before the Cross, divinely accomplished the whole dread design. Today on Mount Tabor, mystically revealing the image of the Trinity, He led up the three foremost disciples alone, Peter, James, and John. Concealing for a little while the form of the flesh, He was transfigured before them, revealing the splendour of His original majesty, though not in its full perfection: confirming them, yet also sparing them, lest at the sight of it they should lose their lives, but showing as much as they could contain and behold with bodily eyes. He brought with Him the foremost prophets, Moses and Elijah, who bore sure witness to His divinity and to the fact that He is the true radiance of the Father, sovereign over the living and the dead. Darkness and cloud overshadowed them, and the voice of the Father bore witness from above out of the cloud, saying: This is He whom I incorruptibly begot from the womb before the morning star, My beloved Son, whom I sent to save those baptised in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and those who faithfully confess the one, indivisible dominion of the Godhead; listen to Him. O Christ our God, Lover of mankind, illumine us too with the light of Your unapproachable glory and make us worthy heirs of Your endless Kingdom, O most good One.
You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, and Your disciples beheld Your glory as far as they could bear it, so that when they saw You crucified they might understand that Your suffering was voluntary and proclaim to the world that You are truly the radiance of the Father.